Red Plague
by Bubonicc
Summary: When the Transformers are suddenly struck ill with a Rust based plague, Ratchet is at a loss, with his allies falling by his sides, he takes up a humans help in finding a cure. With time against them, Ratchet and Maria only hope they can make it in time.
1. Chapter 1

I watched as they rusted to pieces before my eyes. Parts clattered to the ground as they staggered and fell. The ground below me rumbled and began to soak up the energon leaking from their optic Sockets, transformation seems, and any other place it could escape the decaying bodies.

Their screams of agony ringing through my head, sending me to my knees. Helpless and scared. All I could do was watch them die.

**I had to do something.**


	2. Symptoms

**Hello! For those of you who have never read my stories with Maria in them, she makes her first appearance in "Awakening!" and there you learn more about her.**

**You DO NOT have to read Awakening nor its sequel for this story, but you may have a better understanding after reading Awakening.**

**As always enjoy! Sorry for Typos if you catch them!**

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><p>The cool breeze drifted over the fields, disturbing the grass pastures and causing Marias sketch book pages fluttering. Flattening them back out, she adjusted herself on the fence, keeping balance rather well. Returning her pencil to the pad, she smirked as the ground shook and a familiar voice sounded from behind.<p>

"Hmm...how can you maintain that position and be comfortable?" Drift leaned down, a sword pressing into the ground as he leaned on it. Getting a closer look he snorted. "I am way more visually pleasing that those two." Standing strait, he looked into the field, watching Bee spare with Crosshairs. Now and again the ground would rumble when Bee or Crosshairs tripped or pinned the other to the ground.

"I will admit Drift you're a extremely visually pleasing, I have plenty of sketches of you as well."

"You could have more." Reaching over her, his large fingers took the pad from her.

"Hey!" Turning, she rocked on the fence post, almost falling back. "Don't look though that! That's personal stuff!"

"To late..." Flipping the pages, he looked over sketches of himself, Ratchet, Optimus, Crosshairs, and a few of the others.

"I am not above climbing you..." Standing on the fence, she balanced as if she had done this a million times.

"Ratchet said you were a doctor once..." He kept flipping, ignoring the fact that she was grabbing at his leg armor and looking for good foot holds.

"No, I was in college to be a doctor. Never actually made it to doctor status. It wasn't for me."

"So switching to an artist was the better route." His voice was not in any way ridiculing, but rather interested. She could draw no doubt and her works proved it. Optimus and Ratchet were always the most detailed sketches she had.

"Would you rather I become a robot samurai like you?" She had climbed up to his shoulder and spoke directly into his audio receptors. Though she had to duck under his helmet.

"I think the samurai part will be a lot easier for you to accomplish than the robot part." Handing her back the book, she flipped through the pages and showed him one.

"Well, this one is one of my favorites of you." The image was of Drift sitting on a rock polishing one of his swords. The sun having placed natural shadows on him that made him mysterious looking.

"Why don't you ever tell us when you are drawing us?"

"Then you guys end up posing and it all looks fake on the pad. When you guys don't see me, you are always doing something natural and it just translates better on paper that way."

"Right." Stepping over the fence, the blue bot made his way over to Crosshairs and Bee. Bee was the first to notice the two and chirped at them. "You two tear up the corn field and get kicked out then come to this side and do the same." Drift pointed out the large gouges in the earth from where their feet had dug in.

"Gives the land character." Brushing his coat off, Crosshairs stood behind Bee, arms now crossed.

"Maria is kind enough to let us stay here. The least you can do is not destroy the place."

"It's alright Drift. As long as the house stays in one piece, they can bust the land up all they want. We have no horses or cows, so the grass being damaged is no big deal." Climbing down, she landed hard and stood before Bee. "Lookin a little dirty Bee. You too Crosshairs." Brushing some dirt from the bots leg, she smiled when he beeped at her in response.

"We have been covered in worse." Slapping Bee on the back, Crosshairs moved the pick in his mouth to the other side and sighed. "Any word from the others?"

"Ratchet and Optimus are still out. Something about checking out a new crash site."

"Hopefully it is an Autobot ship this time." Drift was pacing around the field, his blades drawn and slicing through the air. "I like to be there when it is a Decepticon one. It has been forever since I picked a fight."

"You and I just crushed a patrol the other day. What are you going to do when all of the fighting is over?" Crosshairs was picking at his arm, pulling dirt from the seams.

"What will you do?" Drift's head turned just enough for Crosshairs to see his smirk.

"We will all live happily ever after, "Maria stood between them, "Right Bee!?" Spinning on her heels, she laughed when he gave her a thumbs up.

Ever since finding Ratchet in the scrap yard, things changed for Maria for the better. Repairing Ratchet, he taught her in depth about Transformer anatomy. Later on in future battles, she became a valuable medical asset for the Autobots, and a safe haven for them to rest. With her small house land locked by farm land, they were safe from praying human eyes. It had finally marked one full year they had left and returned to her. If it was not for her human body, she would have blended right in with them.

"Well if it is a new Autobot ship, I wonder how many new bots will be coming here!" Jumping forwards, Maria held her fists up to be, ready to tussle with him. He held his up back, though Bee would never threw a punch back, only allowing her play fight him. He moved around and she followed, laughing until Crosshairs interrupted them.

"One day you may be accidentally squished if you keep that up."

"You know, we humans are not as fragile as you think-" Cut off by Crosshairs hand suddenly squishing her to the ground, she squirmed.

"Are you sure?" Amused, he let her struggle a moment before removing his hand.

"Well we will see how smart you are when I surprise attack you."

"I'll be sure to watch out for huge hands." He winked, signaling that he was still teasing but she stuck her tongue out at him anyway. "That's not very lady like."

"Please, when have I ever resembled womanly qualities." Hopping the fence, Maria began to make her way back to the house. "Come on, I'll get the hose running and clean you guys up before the others get back."

"Wouldn't want the newbie's thinking we were homeless and deranged ." Crosshairs stepped over the fence while Bee flipped over it, Drift stepped over and all four of them headed home.

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><p>Bee chirped loudly as the freezing water splashed over his hood. Head lights flashing, he kept buzzing at Maria as she reached into her bucket and grabbed a sponge.<p>

"Oh shush, It's not that cold." Spraying him down fully, the sponge she had slapped down and scrubbed that the mud caked on the yellow bot. "What did you guys do when you got this dirty on your home planet? Do you guys even have an equivalent of a shower?" Bee beeped at her several times, and Crosshairs answered her instead.

"Oil baths were a thing. But as the war took the planet, things like that usually didn't happen."

"Hm. A battle field of nude dirty robots. I bet it was great." She heard Crosshairs chuckle but no other response came out. "Well good thing you found me then. Free washes and fixes."

"This is the life."

"I do what I can." Rinsing Bee, she knocked on his hood. "All set Bee." He transformed and stretched, looking at his shining yellow amour. Crosshairs pulled up next, and as she rinsed him down, she heard sirens in the distance. In only a matter of minutes, Ratchet pulled up to the house, followed by Optimus, then a flaming red and orange car, and a smaller red and white car.

"They are home, and looks like they brought wounded back." Drift approached the bots, a delighted look spreading over his face at the red and orange car. "Rodimus! I was wondering if I would ever see you again" In mid sentence, Rodimus transformed and chest bumped the samurai.

The hose dropped to the ground, Marias eyes wide, her mouth gaping to a point that Bee used one finger to close it for her.

"Bee...he's so..._gorgeous_." His flaming yellow chest plate and bright yellow crest pieces on his face caused her eyes to glisten.

"B_zzzzzzk._.." Bee's eyes rolled and he crossed his arms in displeasure.

"You're pretty handsome too." Winking, she trotted over to Ratchet first, he was pulling a wounded bot from Optimus' trailer. "Welcome back!" At first she didn't get a response from the doctor, not until the bot Ratchet had was fully out and exposed to the air.

"Maria, I am going to need the back barn for a work station."

"All yours. There are no animals in it so feel free to use all of the space." She smiled when he turned to her, but his optics flashed worry. "Something wrong?" Ratchet looked back at the bot on the stretcher then back to her.

"I am unsure. But I may need your help later. For now, tend to Optimus, he has a few plating pieces that need to be welded back into place. I would do it but I have something more important to deal with. And it is a simple enough job, I have no doubt you can do it."

"I did patch you up pretty well all that time ago." She moved aside, allowing him to move past and into the back where the barn was.

"I know, but just be careful. Also look into the little red one next to Rodimus. His name is Swerve. He has a few things you can repair as well." With that Ratchet said no more and made his way to the back.

Drift jolted, feeling Maria scaling his back till she reached his shoulder and leaned forwards, barely hanging onto him as she stared right into Rodimus' face.

"Uh? Hello?" Rodimus raised a brow at her, not sure if she was sane.

"_Hello_!" Drift leaned back, pulling her with him.

"Ah, this little flower is Maria. She allows us sanctuary here and repairs us with Ratchet." Taking her into his hand, he held her out to him.

"Glad you made it here in one piece; I have had the boys come back in several before." She laughed and brightened when Rodimus also smiled.

"I have had better flights, that is for sure." The hot rod stretched and sighed. "Nice place you have here. Plenty of space. Quiet."

"Nice paint." She couldn't help spilling out. Rodimus laughed and flexed.

"I know, nobody can keep their eyes off me." Drift rolled his optics and set Maria down on the ground.

"I'll catch up with you guys later, Ratchet said I have repairs to make." Waving the two off, she made her first stop to the small bot names Swerve.

His red and white paint was chipped, and he stood a little shorter then Bee himself. Turning to face the human, his cracked visor flashed, then he smiled, one of his denta chipped.

"Finally, someone shorter than me!" Kneeling down, his smile was even wider at the frustration in Marias face.

"I'll have you know I am average height for my age." Putting her hands on her hips, she leaned to one side. "Ratchet said you may need my help."

"Ah nothing serious. The doc has more important things to do than patch me up. Are you his assistant? I figured he would have..."

"A transformer rather than a human?"

"Well...yes. I guess. I mean...well..." He scratched the top of his head.

"Ratchet has been teaching me about Transformer anatomy and biology. So you don't have to worry, I know what I am doing."

"I don't doubt that, Ratchet is the best of the best."

"He won't tell me any war stories."

"Ah that's just how he is. A grump then and still a grump." Standing back up, a few wires in his arms sparked.

"Come on, I'll patch you up, follow me." Waving for Swerve to follow her, she made her way around to the back of the house and fired up her welder. Years or sculpting metal helped her learn how to heal transformer wounds better. Somehow everything was working in her favor so far. Except the occasional bot tripping over the power lines. "Sit over there and I'll start working." Already she had her visor on her head and her gloves on. Lighting her torch, she pulled it over to Swerve and began her work. Reconnecting and splicing wires, she welded the seams and moved on to his broken visor. Then to his chipped denta, and before Swerve knew it he was whole again.

"Hmm..." moving his arm around. Swerve nodded. "Not too bad little doc."

"I have had a lot to practice on." Flipping her visor up, she heard screaming coming from the barn. "So uh...you have any idea what happened to that guy?"

"We had to share the ship with some decepticons. And to be honest they looked horrible. It was all good and well on the ship, but as soon as we landed it was every bot for themselves. We all were trying to get away."

"Get away?"

"Shockwave sent a few of his goons after us and others. Trying to collect us. No doubt some twisted experiment. If you never met the guy, he is one of the most brilliant scientist you will ever meet. Just too bad he puts it towards torturing sparks in the name of science."

"So what happened to that guy?"

"Not sure exactly. But he started puking up nasty black liquid while on the ship. Must be sick or something. The worse he got the less me moved and the more he screamed. When Ratchet and the others got to us, he put him in some stasis lock to keep him from fighting us and him. But I have no doubt the doc will fix him up."

"So he's a _decepticon_?"

"Yeah, not sure what is name is though. He was practically falling apart when he got on the ship it was hard to really see any defining features."

"Seems then Ratchet has his work cut out for him then." Maria said softly to herself before looking back to the minibot. "I have to do some repairs on Optimus, you're all set here." Swerve nodded and moved on his way back to the others.

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><p>Ratchet was buried in datapads, so lost in thought that he didn't notice Maria enter and stand by his side.<p>

"All repairs have been made. Optimus is back together and Swerve is functioning better."

"Good." He turned quick and scooped her up and roughly dropped her on his shoulder. This was a common thing he had started to do, since he was always worried about stepping on her the simple solution was to have her always sit by his head.

"Swerve told me about this guy." She looked down at the body, its face screwed up in agony and its hand clenching and unclenching. Maria found it odd that his mouth was open but no sound came out. "Is he like Bee?"  
>"No. I disable his vocalize. The screaming was a bit much after a while. Hard to concentrate." He held up a pad, his Optics scanning over it while Maria looked on, though the cybertronian on it was unreadable to her.<p>

"Harsh..." She leaned down, one hand on Ratchets protective grill bars to keep her from falling off. "Do you have any idea what is wrong with him? I didn't even think you guys could get sick."

"Though we have the capacity to live longer, and are a little more durable in nature, humans and transformers are not that different. We can still be taken down by diseases of the sparks, or energon illnesses all the same."

"Interesting." Suddenly, she pulled back, the bot on the slab jerking up and spewing black liquid from its mouth and eyes. Ratchet was quick to shield her, though it wasn't long before it stopped.

"Vomiting, high fever, aggression..." He trailed off as the con on the slabs arm suddenly fall to the floor, "And massive rusting. At alarming levels. Faster than I have ever seen before..." As he spoke, patches on the bots body rusted away, and Maria watched with wide eyes.

**"His body is eating itself."**


End file.
